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 “I love the Power Glove, it’s so bad.” – these immortal words spoken by a character in the
movie The Wizard is a great
illustration of Nintendo’s ability to hype a video game. After selling millions of copies of Super Mario Bros. 2 only to have
customers a little disappointed that it was so different from the first
Mario game; Nintendo knew that an all-out marketing blitz would push Super Mario Bros. 3 over the
top. Nintendo released SMB3 in Japan around the same time that SMB2 hit
the stores in the United
States, then
they slowly let the hype begin.
They began by briefly mentioning it in multiple issues of Nintendo Power, and then they
started showing screenshots of the game proving that it looked great and
was a true sequel to the original Super Mario game. Then over a year after it came out in Japan,
The Wizard was dropped at the
theaters. This movie was basically
a 90-minute ad for Nintendo starring Fred Savage from The Wonder Years. As we all know, the main reason kids
went to see this movie was that the climax of the film was a video game
tournament sequence that game America their first glimpse
of Super Mario Bros. 3.
In February 1990, after The Wizard had served its purpose,
Nintendo then released SMB3 – but only to their PlayChoice-10 arcade
machines across the United
States. This gave everyone their first chance
to play this classic game and served notice to parents that they would be
buying their children this game even though Christmas had just come and
gone. Finally, after a year of
hype in Nintendo Power (it
reached the Top 30 poll long before it officially was released), a month
of hype at the box office and a few weeks exclusively at arcades,
Nintendo allowed U.S.
customers to purchase this game.
And purchase it they did,  Super
Mario Bros. 3 smashed all
sales records and is still the best selling game (that was never bundled
with a system) of all time. It has
also gone down in history as one of the greatest games ever made. The big question is, was it all hype or
is it truly a great game? The
answer, of course, is that this game is awesome and worthy of all
accolades it receives.
The first key to this game is
that it goes back to its roots. It
drops virtually everything that made the first sequel unique and extends
all of the great elements of the original game. Once again, Mario is in the Mushroom Kingdom and he must destroy Bowser
and his legion of bad guys including Koopa Troopas, Goombas and Hammer
Brothers. Back is the ability to
go down pipes, throw fireballs and swim.
Gone is the ability to play as Toad, Princess Toadstool or Luigi
(of course player 2 is once again Luigi) and also gone is Mario’s ability
to super-jump when ducking for an extended period of time. In fact, the only things that are kept
from SMB2 are the ability to back-pedal through a level if you miss
something, the extra guy lottery at the end of a level and one bad guy
(the walking Bomb-oms).
Major additions to the Mario
universe are lots of new power-ups for Mario, with the main talk
surrounding Mario’s newfound ability to fly with the use of a raccoon
tail. The graphics are a huge step
up from Super Mario Bros. and
are some of the most impressive on the NES, a big feat since the game
came out in 1988 in Japan
and the NES didn’t die until 1994.
Another  major addition is that you are now able to
hold over 30 power-ups to use when needed. The other major addition to this game
is the overhead map on each level, which allows you to plan the path that
Mario will take on his adventure.
Each world consists of around seven levels, one mini-fortress, one
castle and a few mini-games. One
mini game involves you trying to match the top, middle and bottom of an
icon by pressing “A” at the right moment.
If you are able to match all three parts of the icon you gain
extra guys (the amount varies depending on what icon you match up). The other mini game is Toad’s Mushroom
House, where you choose between three prizes hidden in treasure chests,
the best usually being a raccoon tail.
As you travel around the world map some levels can be avoided
while beating others will reveal alternate routes that can lead to
mini-games or short-cuts. This
addition was used less interestingly by almost all major sidescrollers
for years to come.
While over time people expressed
their disappointment with Super
Mario Bros. 2 the same has never occurred for SMB3. This one was a flat out hit with gamers
because it was truly original and a long, fun game to boot.
Positives:
 The game has graphics far ahead of what
had come before it along with crisp gameplay and catchy music. SMB3 is a long game but very easy until
the final stage. There are a lot of
secrets to discover as well as lots of very interesting and diverse
levels. There is Giant World,
where everything is much larger than Mario, an Ice World where Mario
slips and slides around (a very similar world was present in SMB2) and of
course a Water World where Mario must swim his way through many
levels. The many new power-ups are
also very cool. The mushroom, fireflower and invincibility star still remain but
now Mario can also fly when he grabs a raccoon tail. There is also a frog suit that makes
swimming a breeze, a tanooki suit that not only
allows you to fly but can turn Mario into an invincible statue. And the coolest and hardest to find
power-up is the vaunted Hammer Brother suit. That’s right, if you play without
warping you will probably discover one or two of these suits that allow
you to throw hammers continuously at all bad guys. There are also lots of mini-games that
give you power-ups that you can use at the start of levels, and I love
that you can hold on to over 30 items for future use. You never know when an extra raccoon
feather will be needed! One very
important addition to SMB3 that almost all major platforms adopted was
the map. This was a great addition
because it allowed you to strategize what levels to skip and when to use
your power-ups that you have collected.
Glaring
Negatives:
It’s hard to say much negative
about this game, I can only think of two things. It is  extremely easy to beat this game because
extra lives are so common. In fact
there are a couple spots where if you feel like it you can get 99 extra
guys with no skill. The other
problem with this game is that there is no battery. To win without warping you have to beat
over 80 levels and this will take you many hours. I had to leave my NES on overnight just
to finish the job. Of course the
game is so good that I wanted to do that so it isn’t really much of a
negative.
Graphics
and Sound: Excellent
As always, the graphics and sound
are high quality. The bad guys all
look interesting and each World has its own unique score that plays over
the overhead map. Mario looks
really funny in his different suits and they are all extremely helpful
and easy to use.
Gameplay
and Controls: Perfect
The gameplay harkens back to the
original Super Mario game. Mario
jumps and speed runs just as he does in the first game. He can go down pipes and throw
fireballs. Of course now he can
fly as well. Flying is handled
very well and is not hard to do but also is not so easy that it cheapens
the quality of the game. There are
no insanely evil jumps or anything cheap, which I appreciate greatly.
Features:
continues, warp zones, hidden secrets…
This game has it all. If you play long enough (or go to www.gamefaqs.com) you will discover
secret pirate ships and white mushroom houses that can be unlocked on
each world map. Also there are
three hidden whistles that can be used to warp Mario through the game. Also every 80,000 points a Memory card
game appears on your map, which you can play to earn fabulous prizes.
Fun?:
Yes
You may not be able to beat the
whole game in one sitting but you will want to. It is very hard to lose all your lives
in this game but it is equally hard to just turn off your NES before you
have beaten it.
Challenge:
Not really
If you don’t warp, then this game
is easy because you will rack up over 50 lives e asily.
Of course the main challenge is finding time to finish the game
without warping. If you do warp,
you better be talented because the 8th World is tough to beat
with only a handful of lives.
Replay:
Definitely
This is one that is always
requested when friends come over.
I bust it out myself every year as soon as I start to forget how
good it is.
2
Player: Yes
You have to alternate turns but
you can try to beat the game cooperatively and share all the goodies or
play it competitively and steal the prizes from each other along the
way. You can play in four bonus
games against your partner – one of which is a great replica of the
original Mario Bros. game.
Online
Manual?: Yes
http://www.nintendoage.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Element.View&egID=2252&lgID=982
Bottom
Line: This is a must-own
Super Mario Bros. 3 is often
considered to be the best game on the NES and it is hard to argue with
that assessment. If you don’t own
this game then your NES collection has a large hole in it. If you haven’t played it in awhile or
have never beaten it without warping, set aside a day and enjoy one of
the best experiences the video game world has to offer!
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